The Most Interesting Stories of All Nations

J >> Julian Hawthorne >> The Most Interesting Stories of All Nations

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And he dragged from under the bed a big trunk, in which were five
canvas bags of various sizes, packed full and tied tightly.

"Here, here it is! This is our Siberian dust," he said, smiling
and bowing, indicating the trunk with a wave of his hand, as if
introducing it to Prince Shadursky.

"Would not your excellency be so good as to choose one of these
bags to make a test? It will be much better if you see yourself
that the business is above board, with no swindle about it. Choose
whichever you wish!"

Shadursky lifted one of the bags from the trunk, and when Mr.
Escrocevitch untied it, before the young prince's eyes appeared a
mass of metallic grains, at which he gazed not without inward
pleasure.

"How are you going to make a test?" he asked. "We have no blow-
pipes nor test-tubes here?"

"Make your mind easy, your excellency! We shall find everything we
require--blow-pipes and test-tubes and nitric acid, and even a
decimal weighing machine. In our business we arrange matters in
such a way that we need not disturb outsiders. Only charcoal we
haven't got, but we can easily send for some."

And going to the door, he gave the servant in the passage an order,
and a few minutes later the latter returned with a dish of
charcoal.

"First class! Now everything is ready," cried Mr. Escrocevitch,
rubbing his hands; and for greater security he turned the key in
the door.

"Take whichever piece of charcoal you please, your excellency; but,
not to soil your hands, you had better let me take it myself, and
you sprinkle some of the dust on it," and he humbled himself before
the prince. "Forgive me for asking you to do it all yourself,
since it is not from any lack of politeness on my part, but simply
in order that your excellency should be fully convinced that there
is no deception." Saying this, he got his implements ready and lit
the lamp.

The blow-pipe came into action. Valyajnikoff made the experiment,
and Shadursky attentively followed every movement. The charcoal
glowed white hot, the dust ran together and disappeared, and in its
place, when the charcoal had cooled a little, and the amateur
chemist presented it to Prince Shadursky, the prince saw a little
ball of gold lying in a crevice of the charcoal, such as might
easily have formed under the heat of the blow-pipe.

"Take the globule, your excellency, and place it, for greater
security, in your pocketbook," said Escrocevitch; "you may even
wrap it up in a bit of paper; and keep the sack of gold dust
yourself, so that there can be no mistake."

Shadursky gladly followed this last piece of advice.

"And now, your excellency, I should like you kindly to select
another bag; we shall make two or three more tests in the same
way."

The prince consented to this also.

Escrocevitch handed him a new piece of charcoal to sprinkle dust
on, and once more brought the blow-pipe into operation. And again
the brass filings disappeared and in the crevice appeared a new
globule of gold.

"Well, perhaps these two tests will be sufficient. What is your
excellency good enough to think on that score?" asked the supposed
Valyajnikoff.

"What is the need of further tests? The matter is clear enough,"
assented the prince.

"If it is satisfactory, we shall proceed to make it even more
satisfactory. Here we have a touch-stone, and here we have some
nitric acid. Try the globules on the touchstone physically, and,
so to speak, with the nitric acid chemically. And if you wish to
make even more certain, this is what we shall do. What quantity of
gold does your excellency wish to take?"

"The more the better. I am ready to buy all these bags."

"VERY much obliged to your excellency, as this will suit me
admirably," said Escrocevitch, bowing low. "And so, if your
excellency is ready, then I humbly beg you to take each bag,
examine it, and seal it with your excellency's own seal. Then let
us take one of the globules and go to one of the best jewelers in
St. Petersburg. Let him tell us the value of the gold and in this
way the business will be exact; there will be no room for complaint
on either side, since everything will be fair and above board."

The prince was charmed with the honesty and frankness of Mr.
Valyajnikoff.

They went together to one of the best-known jewelers, who, in their
presence, made a test and announced that the gold was chemically
pure, without any alloy, and therefore of the highest value.

On their return to the hotel, Mr. Escrocevitch weighed the bags,
which turned out to weigh forty-eight pounds. Allowing three
pounds for the weight of the bags, this left forty-five pounds of
pure gold.

"How much a pound do you want?" Shadursky asked him.

"A pretty low price, your excellency," answered the Siberian, with
a shrug of his shoulders, "as I am selling from extreme necessity,
because I have to leave for Siberia; I've spent too much time and
money in St. Petersburg already; and if I cannot sell my wares, I
shall not be able to go at all. I assume that the government price
is known to your excellency?"

"But I am willing to take two hundred rubles a pound. I can't take
a kopeck less, and even so I am making a reduction of nearly a
hundred rubles the pound."

"All right!" assented Shadursky. "That will amount to--" he went
on, knitting his brows, "forty-five pounds at two hundred rubles a
pound--"

"It will make exactly nine thousand, your excellency. Just exactly
nine," Escrocevitch obsequiously helped him out. The prince,
cutting the matter short, immediately gave him a check, and taking
the trunk with the coveted bags, drove with the Siberian employee
to his father's house, where the elder Prince Shadursky, at his
son's pressing demand, though very unwillingly, exchanged the check
for nine thousand rubles in bills, for which Ivan Ivanovitch
Valyajnikoff forthwith gave a receipt. The prince was delighted
with his purchase, and he did not utter a syllable about it to
anyone except Kovroff.

Sergei Antonovitch gave him a friendly counsel not to waste any
time, but to go abroad at once, as, according to the Exchange
Gazette, gold was at that moment very high, so that he had an
admirable opportunity to get rid of his wares on very favorable
terms.

The prince, in fact, without wasting time got his traveling
passport, concealed his purchase with the utmost care, and set out
for the frontier, announcing that he was on his way to his mother,
whose health imperatively demanded his presence.

The success of the whole business depended on the fact that brass
filings, which bear a strong external resemblance to gold dust, are
dissipated in the strong heat of the blowpipe. The charcoal was
prepared beforehand, a slight hollow being cut in it with a
penknife, in the bottom of which is placed a globule of pure gold,
the top of which is just below the level of the charcoal, and the
hollow is filled up with powdered charcoal mixed with a little
beeswax. The "chemist" who makes the experiments must make himself
familiar with the distinctive appearance of the charcoal, so as to
pick it out from among several pieces, and must remember exactly
where the crevice is.

On this first occasion, Escrocevitch had prepared all four pieces
of charcoal, which were brought by the servant in the passage. He
chose as his temporary abode a hotel whose proprietor was an old
ally of his, and the servant was also a confederate.

Thus was founded the famous "Gold Products Company," which is still
in very successful operation, and is constantly widening its sphere
of activity.

XVII

THE DELUGE

Count Kallash finally decided on his course of action. It was too
late to seek justice for his sister, but not too late for a tardy
reparation. The gang had prospered greatly, and the share of
Baroness von Doring and Bodlevski already amounted to a very large
figure. Count Kallash determined to demand for his sister a sum
equal to that of the securities in her name which Natasha had
stolen, calculating that this would be enough to maintain his
sister in peace and comfort to the end of her days. His own life
was too stormy, too full of risks for him to allow his sister's
fate to depend on his, so he had decided to settle her in some
quiet nook where, free from danger, she might dream away her few
remaining years.

To his surprise Baroness von Doring flatly refused to be put under
contribution.

"Your demand is outrageous," she said. "I am not going to be the
victim of any such plot!"

"Very well, I will compel you to unmask?"

"To unmask? What do you mean, count? You forget yourself!"

"Well, then, I shall try to make you remember me!" And Kallash
turned his back on her and strode from the room. A moment later,
and she heard the door close loudly behind him.

The baroness had already told Bodlevski of her meeting with
Princess Anna, and she now hurried to him for counsel. They agreed
that their present position, with Kallash's threats hanging over
their heads, was intolerable. But what was to be done?

Bodlevski paced up and down the room, biting his lips, and seeking
some decisive plan.

"We must act in such a way," he said, coming to a stand before the
baroness, "as to get rid of this fellow once for all. I think he
is dangerous, and it never does any harm to take proper
precautions. Get the money ready, Natasha; we must give it to
him."

"What! give him the money!" and the baroness threw up her hands.
"Will that get us out of his power? Can we feel secure? It will
only last till something new happens. At the first occasion--"

"Which will also be the last!" interrupted Bodlevski. "Suppose we
do give him the money to-day; does that mean that we give it for
good? Not at all! It will be back in my pocket to-morrow! Let us
think it out properly!" and he gave her a friendly pat on the
shoulder, and sat down in an easy chair in front of her.

The result of their deliberations was a little note addressed to
Count Kallash:

"DEAR COUNT," it ran, "I was guilty of an act of folly toward you
to-day. I am ashamed of it, and wish to make amends as soon as
possible. We have always been good friends, so let us forget our
little difference, the more so that an alliance is much more
advantageous to us both than a quarrel. Come this evening to
receive the money you spoke of, and to clasp in amity the hand of
your devoted friend,

VON D."

Kallash came about ten o'clock in the evening, and received from
Bodlevski the sum of fifty thousand rubles in notes. The baroness
was very amiable, and persuaded him to have some tea. There was
not a suggestion of future difficulties, and everything seemed to
promise perfect harmony for the future. Bodlevski talked over
plans of future undertakings, and told him, with evident
satisfaction, that they had just heard of the arrest of the younger
Prince Shadursky, in Paris, for attempting to defraud a bank by a
pretended sale of gold dust. Count Kallash was also gay, and a
certain satisfaction filled his mind at the thought of his sister's
security, as he felt the heavy packet of notes in his pocket. He
smoked his cigar with evident satisfaction, sipping the fragrant
tea from time to time. The conversation was gay and animated, and
for some reason or other turned to the subject of clubs.

"Ah, yes," interposed Bodlevski, "a propos! I expect to be a
member of the Yacht Club this summer. Let me recommend to you a
new field of action. They will disport themselves on the green
water, and we on the green cloth! By the way, I forgot to speak of
it--I bought a boat the other day, a mere rowboat. It is on the
Fontauka Canal, at the Simeonovski bridge. We must come for a row
some day."

"Delightful," exclaimed the baroness. "But why some day? Why not
to-night? The moon is beautiful, and, indeed, it is hardly dark at
midnight. Your speaking of boats has filled me with a sudden
desire to go rowing. What do you say, dear count?" and she turned
amiably to Kallash.

Count Kallash at once consented, considering the baroness's idea an
admirable one, and they were soon on their way toward the
Simeonovski bridge.

"How delightful it is!" cried the baroness, some half hour later,
as they were gliding over the quiet water. "Count, do you like
strong sensations?" she asked suddenly.

"I am fond of strong sensations of every kind," he replied, taking
up her challenge.

"Well, I am going to offer you a little sensation, though it always
greatly affects me. Everything is just right for it, and I am in
the humor, too."

"What is it to be?" asked Count Kallash indifferently.

"You will see in a moment. Do you know that there are underground
canals in St. Petersburg?"

"In St. Petersburg?" asked Kallash in astonishment.

"Yes, in St. Petersburg! A whole series of underground rivers,
wide enough for a boat to pass through. I have rowed along them
several times. Does not that offer a new sensation, something
quite unlike St. Petersburg?"

"Yes, it is certainly novel," answered Count Kallash, now
interested. "Where are they? Pray show them to me."

"There is one a few yards off. Shall we enter? You are not
afraid?" she said with a smile of challenge.

"By no means--unless you command me to be afraid," Kallash replied
in the same tone. "Let us enter at once!"

"Kasimir, turn under the arch!" and the boat cut across the canal
toward a half circle of darkness. A moment more and the darkness
engulfed them completely. They were somewhere under the Admiralty,
not far from St. Isaac's Cathedral. Away ahead of them was a tiny
half circle of light, where the canal joined the swiftly flowing
Neva. Carriages rumbled like distant thunder above their heads.

"Deuce take it! it is really rather fine!" cried the count, with
evident pleasure. "A meeting of pirates is all we need to make it
perfect. It is a pity that we cannot see where we are!"

"Light a match. Have you any?" said the baroness. "I have, and
wax matches, too." The count took out a match and lit it, and the
underground stream was lit by a faint ruddy glow. The channel,
covered by a semicircular arch, was just wide enough for one boat
to pass through, with oars out. The black water flowed silently by
in a sluggish, Stygian stream. Bats, startled by the light,
fluttered in their faces, and then disappeared in the darkness.

As the boat glided on, the match burned out in Count Kallash's
fingers. He threw it into the water, and opened his matchbox to
take another.

At the same moment he felt a sharp blow on the head, followed by a
second, and he sank senseless in the bottom of the boat.

"Where is the money?" cried Bodlevski, who had struck him with the
handle of the oar. "Get his coat open!" and the baroness deftly
drew the thick packet from the breast pocket of his coat. "Here it
is! I have it!" she replied quickly.

"Now, overboard with him! Keep the body steady!" A dull splash,
and then silence. "To-night we shall sleep secure!"

They counted without their host. Princess Anna had also her scheme
of vengeance, and had worked it out, without a word to her brother.
When Natasha and Bodlevski entered their apartment, they found the
police in possession, and a few minutes later both were under
arrest. Abundant evidence of fraud and forgery was found in their
dwelling, and the vast Siberian solitudes avenged the death of
their last victim.

Jorgen Wilhelm Bergsoe

The Amputated Arms

It happened when I was about eighteen or nineteen years old (began
Dr. Simsen). I was studying at the University, and being coached
in anatomy by my old friend Solling. He was an amusing fellow,
this Solling. Full of jokes and whimsical ideas, and equally
merry, whether he was working at the dissecting table or brewing a
punch for a jovial crowd.

He had but one fault--if one might call it so--and that was his
exaggerated idea of punctuality. He grumbled if you were late two
minutes; any longer delay would spoil the entire evening for him.
He himself was never known to be late. At least not during the
entire years of my studying.

One Wednesday evening our little circle of friends met as usual in
my room at seven o'clock. I had made the customary preparations
for the meeting, had borrowed three chairs--I had but one myself--
had cleaned all my pipes, and had persuaded Hans to take the
breakfast dishes from the sofa and carry them downstairs. One by
one my friends arrived, the clock struck seven, and to our great
astonishment, Solling had not yet appeared. One, two, even five
minutes passed before we heard him run upstairs and knock at the
door with his characteristic short blows.

When he entered the room he looked so angry and at the same time so
upset that I cried out: "What's the matter, Solling? You look as
if you had been robbed."

"That's exactly what has happened," replied Solling angrily. "But
it was no ordinary sneak thief," he added, hanging his overcoat
behind the door.

"What have you lost?" asked my neighbor Nansen.

"Both arms from the new skeleton I've just recently received from
the hospital," said Solling with an expression as if his last cent
had been taken from him. "It's vandalism!"

We burst out into loud laughter at this remarkable answer, but
Solling continued: "Can you imagine it? Both arms are gone, cut
off at the shoulder joint;--and the strangest part of it is that
the same thing has been done to my shabby old skeleton which stands
in my bedroom. There wasn't an arm on either of them."

"That's too bad," I remarked. "For we were just going to study the
ANATOMY of the arm to-night."

"Osteology," corrected Solling gravely. "Get out your skeleton,
little Simsen. It isn't as good as mine, but it will do for this
evening."

I went to the corner where my anatomical treasures were hidden
behind a green curtain--"the Museum," was what Solling called it--
but my astonishment was great when I found my skeleton in its
accustomed place and wearing as usual my student's uniform--but
without arms.

"The devil!" cried Solling. "That was done by the same person who
robbed me; the arms are taken off at the shoulder joint in exactly
the same manner. You did it, Simsen!"

I declared my innocence, very angry at the abuse of my fine
skeleton, while Nansen cried: "Wait a moment, I'll bring in mine.
There hasn't been a soul in my room since this morning, I can swear
to that. I'll be back in an instant."

He hurried into his room, but returned in a few moments greatly
depressed and somewhat ashamed. The skeleton was in its usual
place, but the arms were gone, cut off at the shoulder in exactly
the same manner as mine.

The affair, mysterious in itself, had now come to be a serious
matter. We lost ourselves in suggestions and explanations, none of
which seemed to throw any light on the subject. Finally we sent a
messenger to the other side of the house where, as I happened to
know, was a new skeleton which the young student Ravn had recently
received from the janitor of the hospital.

Ravn had gone out and taken the key with him. The messenger whom
we had sent to the rooms of the Iceland students returned with the
information that one of them had used the only skeleton they
possessed to pummel the other with, and that consequently only the
thigh bones were left unbroken.

What were we to do? We couldn't understand the matter at all.
Solling scolded and cursed and the company was about to break up
when we heard some one coming noisily upstairs. The door was
thrown open and a tall, thin figure appeared on the threshold--our
good friend Niels Daae.

He was a strange chap, this Niels Daae, the true type of a species
seldom found nowadays. He was no longer young, and by reason of a
queer chain of circumstances, as he expressed it, he had been
through nearly all the professions and could produce papers proving
that he had been on the point of passing not one but three
examinations.

He had begun with theology; but the story of the quarrel between
Jacob and Esau had led him to take up the study of law. As a law
student he had come across an interesting poisoning case, which had
proved to him that a study of medicine was extremely necessary for
lawyers; and he had taken up the study of medicine with such energy
that he had forgotten all his law and was about to take his last
examinations at the age of forty.

Niels Daae took the story of our troubles very seriously. "Every
pot has two handles," he began. "Every sausage two ends, every
question two sides, except this one--this has three." (Applause.)
"When we look at it from the legal point of view there can be no
doubt that it belongs in the category of ordinary theft. But from
the fact that the thief took only the arms when he might have taken
the entire skeleton, we must conclude that he is not in a
responsible condition of mind, which therefore introduces a medical
side to the affair. From a legal point of view, the thief must be
convicted for robbery, or at least for the illegal appropriation of
the property of others; but from the medical point of view, we must
acquit him, because he is not responsible for his acts. Here we
have two professions quarreling with one another, and who shall say
which is right? But now I will introduce the theological point of
view, and raise the entire affair up to a higher plane.
Providence, in the material shape of a patron of mine in the
country, whose children I have inoculated with the juice of wisdom,
has sent me two fat geese and two first-class ducks. These animals
are to be cooked and eaten this evening in Mathiesen's
establishment, and I invite this honored company to join me there.
Personally I look upon the disappearance of these arms as an all-
wise intervention of Providence, which sets its own inscrutable
wisdom up against the wisdom which we would otherwise have heard
from the lips of my venerable friend Solling."

Daae's confused speech was received with laughter and applause, and
Solling's weak protests were lost in the general delight at the
invitation. I have often noticed that such improvised festivities
are usually the most enjoyable, and so it was for us that evening.
Niels Daae treated us to his ducks and to his most amusing jokes,
Solling sang his best songs, our jovial host Mathiesen told his
wittiest stories, and the merriment was in full swing when we heard
cries in the street, and then a rush of confused noises broken by
screams of pain.

"There's been an accident," cried Solling, running out to the door.

We all followed him and discovered that a pair of runaway horses
had thrown a carriage against a tree, hurling the driver from his
box, under the wheels. His right arm had been broken near the
shoulder. In the twinkling of an eye the hall of festivities was
transformed into an emergency hospital. Solling shook his head as
he examined the injury, and ordered the transport of the patient to
the city hospital. It was his belief that the arm would have to be
amputated, cut off at the shoulder joint, just as had been the case
with our skeleton. "Damned odd coincidence, isn't it?" he remarked
to me.

Our merry mood had vanished and we took our way, quiet and
depressed, through the old avenues toward our home. For the first
time in its existence possibly, our venerable "barracks," as we
called the dormitory, saw its occupants returning home from an
evening's bout just as the night watchman intoned his eleven
o'clock verse.

"Just eleven," exclaimed Solling. "It's too early to go to bed,
and too late to go anywhere else. We'll go up to your room, little
Simsen, and see if we can't have some sort of a lesson this
evening. You have your colored plates and we'll try to get along
with them. It's a nuisance that we should have lost those arms
just this evening."

"The Doctor can have all the arms and legs he wants," grinned Hans,
who came out of the doorway just in time to hear Solling's last
word.

"What do you mean, Hans?" asked Solling in astonishment.

"It'll be easy enough to get them," said Hans. "They've torn down
the planking around the Holy Trinity churchyard, and dug up the
earth to build a new wall. I saw it myself, as I came past the
church. Lord, what a lot of bones they've dug out there! There's
arms and legs and heads, many more than the Doctor could possibly
need."

"Much good that does us," answered Solling. "They shut the gates
at seven o'clock and it's after eleven already."

"Oh, yes, they shut them," grinned Hans again. "But there's
another way to get in. If you go through the gate of the porcelain
factory and over the courtyard, and through the mill in the fourth
courtyard that leads out into Spring Street, there you will see
where the planking is torn down, and you can get into the
churchyard easily."

"Hans, you're a genius!" exclaimed Solling in delight. "Here,
Simsen, you know that factory inside and out, you're so friendly
with that fellow Outzen who lives there. Run along to him and let
him give you the key of the mill. It will be easy to find an arm
that isn't too much decayed. Hurry along, now; the rest of us will
wait for you upstairs."

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